Gas Milage Comparison - 3 Vehicle Comparison

In the last 5 years of Brent’s Travels I have traveled between 16K and 20K miles in my approx 4 months each year inbthe road.

To recap my first year of travels in 2014 I had a Class B camper below.  Years 2,3&4 (2015,2016,&2017) my Vandwelling Choice was a Prius.  Finally this year was my Tacoma with a Four Wheel Camper (FWC).

Over a series of blog posts I will look at different aspects of my various Vandwelling travel choices.

If you have questions you would like answered please let me know.

Gas Milage, Comparison:

My first year with the above Class B camper was a get out the door and go see the country trip.  I knew the Chevy G30 (one ton chassis) history and had a full evaluation of the vehicle by a mechanic before I left having things fixed and preventive things adddressed too.

All this work including a full tuneup can’t fix the vehicle weight, the V-8 350 engine, and non-aerodynamic design.   Although getting an average mpg of 10, it was the wind and climbing hills that sucked the gas.

The Prius my first year I didn’t use the engine for heating or electricity (hybrid battery) for cooling, so I got over 50 mpg.  At the request of some of the blog viewer feedback to test using the Prius for heating and cooling, I did go down to 46 mpg.  I have to say that warming the car before bed and before you get up was a nice feature, but A/C usage was limited because of not having too many hot days in the spring.



Now for the tale of two Tacoma’s.  Above is my Tacoma with my FWC Fleet camper and with what is carried in the cab I was carrying about 1,000 lbs (1/2 ton)

My average mpg was 16.  

My detail 2018 stats are as follows;

- drove 16,210 miles

- spent 2,637.52 in gas 

- used 1013.0 gallons of gas

- I filled up 115 times (in UT I filled up every time I was in town to ensure I was prepared)

So that gave me 16 mpg that I averaged $2.60/ gallon, and cost me $0.1627 for fuel each mile I drove.

Note: the highest I got on a fill up was about 18 mpg.

Now for the other take of  my Tacoma.  Without my FWC on my truck I get around 20 mpg on highway driving and 18 mpg around town.

I plan to go to Maine for an event in June and with all that I don’t need to carry for this trip, I’m hoping for higher mpg.

Gas Milage, In Summary:

Class B - 3

Prius - 10

Tacoma - 6

In retrospect, I had guessed I would get around 17 mpg.  17 sounds so much better than 16🤔, although it’s not.

I can say that I’m not unhappy with the Tacoma mpg as it brought me places the Class B and Prius could not go.

On the FWC owners FB page I even felt better about my 16 mpg after seeing this post below where this owner has a Tundra (larger Toyota truck than mine) and FWC Hawk model (heavier model than my Fleet), only got 11.4 mpg.

I sure wish, along with other high clearance vehicles, to be in the 25 mpg range, but IRS an elusive dream.

As I said in the past, if I didn’t have to drive across the country to get to the southwest, the fuel costs would not be as big an issue.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com